Humanitarian relief workers arriving in Haiti are encountering unimaginable pain and suffering. It is still impossible to determine the scale of destruction after Tuesday's 7.0 earthquake, but it is feared tens of thousands have died. US Secretary of State Clinton has compared the catastrophe to the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia.
Disaster relief aid has slowly begun arriving on Thursday in Port-au-Prince, the earthquake-devastated capital of Haiti. Numerous countries are currently dispatching humanitarian relief goods, search-and-rescue teams and supplies to the Caribbean nation. The first military aircraft are now arriving at the airport in Port-au-Prince, after it was closed much of Wednesday. And American military aircraft are conducting aerial searches to find possible survivors and also assess the scope of the catastrophe.
It is still too early to determine the devastation wrought by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake, but the Red Cross estimates that a total of 3 million people have been affected. Thousands are believed to have been buried in rubble in the devastated capital alone.
[ PHOTO GALLERY ]
There are still no official figures for the death toll. The Haitian ambassador to the Organization of American States, Duly Brutus, said he hoped there wouldn't be more than 30,000 dead. But Haitian President Réné Préval, who is coordinating international relief efforts at the Port-au-Prince airport, told CNN he had heard that between 30,000 and 50,000 had perished, but that it was still too early to provide any official figures. Earlier, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had warned of up to 100,000 deaths.
On Wednesday, one day after the quake, tens of thousands of newly homeless people wandered the streets of the capital. Survivors used their bare hands as they tried to rescue people trapped in the rubble. The streets are lined with the dead, many of whom have been covered in white sheets.
Many injured are gathering in the parking lot of the Villa Creole Hotel in Port-au-Prince, where countless people lay in tents with injuries ranging from cuts and lacerations to broken bones. Many have not yet been provided with care because there aren't enough doctors to provide treatment. The state of health care in Haiti is disastrous, and many hospitals were destroyed in Tuesday's earthquake.
"I can't take it any more," 28-year-old Alex Georges told the Associated Press, after waiting more than a day for treatment. "My back hurts too much." The dead body of another man around the same age lay just a few feet away from him. At the time of the quake, Georges had been meeting with other students at a school in the Morne Hercule neighborhood. The roof collapsed and at least 11 of his classmates were killed instantly.
'Everything Is Urgent'
On Thursday, rescue workers struggled to prioritize their goals amidst the magnitude of the devastation. "The immediate need is to rescue people trapped in the rubble," said Sophie Perez, the Haiti director of the US-based humanitarian organization CARE. "Then to get people food and water. Everything is urgent."
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged immediate relief on Wednesday. "Germany will support the people of Haiti where it can," Merkel said. The chancellor said she had been shocked by the scale of damage and assured Haitians they had the solidarity of the German government.
Disaster relief aid has slowly begun arriving on Thursday in Port-au-Prince, the earthquake-devastated capital of Haiti. Numerous countries are currently dispatching humanitarian relief goods, search-and-rescue teams and supplies to the Caribbean nation. The first military aircraft are now arriving at the airport in Port-au-Prince, after it was closed much of Wednesday. And American military aircraft are conducting aerial searches to find possible survivors and also assess the scope of the catastrophe.
It is still too early to determine the devastation wrought by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake, but the Red Cross estimates that a total of 3 million people have been affected. Thousands are believed to have been buried in rubble in the devastated capital alone.
[ PHOTO GALLERY ]
There are still no official figures for the death toll. The Haitian ambassador to the Organization of American States, Duly Brutus, said he hoped there wouldn't be more than 30,000 dead. But Haitian President Réné Préval, who is coordinating international relief efforts at the Port-au-Prince airport, told CNN he had heard that between 30,000 and 50,000 had perished, but that it was still too early to provide any official figures. Earlier, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive had warned of up to 100,000 deaths.
On Wednesday, one day after the quake, tens of thousands of newly homeless people wandered the streets of the capital. Survivors used their bare hands as they tried to rescue people trapped in the rubble. The streets are lined with the dead, many of whom have been covered in white sheets.
Many injured are gathering in the parking lot of the Villa Creole Hotel in Port-au-Prince, where countless people lay in tents with injuries ranging from cuts and lacerations to broken bones. Many have not yet been provided with care because there aren't enough doctors to provide treatment. The state of health care in Haiti is disastrous, and many hospitals were destroyed in Tuesday's earthquake.
"I can't take it any more," 28-year-old Alex Georges told the Associated Press, after waiting more than a day for treatment. "My back hurts too much." The dead body of another man around the same age lay just a few feet away from him. At the time of the quake, Georges had been meeting with other students at a school in the Morne Hercule neighborhood. The roof collapsed and at least 11 of his classmates were killed instantly.
'Everything Is Urgent'
On Thursday, rescue workers struggled to prioritize their goals amidst the magnitude of the devastation. "The immediate need is to rescue people trapped in the rubble," said Sophie Perez, the Haiti director of the US-based humanitarian organization CARE. "Then to get people food and water. Everything is urgent."
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged immediate relief on Wednesday. "Germany will support the people of Haiti where it can," Merkel said. The chancellor said she had been shocked by the scale of damage and assured Haitians they had the solidarity of the German government.
